I participated in the Cedar Point Coasting for Kids 2009 Ride-a-thon on Wednesday, August 26, 2009. Coaster Buzz Members rode on Gemini, a signature coaster of Cedar Point, from 7AM-5PM. The group has managed to raise over $8,600 so far and it's still going. Let's see if we can help the group hit $10,000.

It was a blast. Though, I was pretty sore Thursday. The few who stayed on the entire time (including myself) managed to get 129 laps. I kept track on a tally counters. It was funny, every few laps someone would ask me where we were at. I think the people who took a few breaks knew how many laps they missed and kept track by simply knowing how far behind they were. I think there were at least 3 people including myself who stayed on the whole time.

In the morning, they had some very good pastries, coffee and juice. The cinnamon roll was almost the size of a pillow. It was very good. Eventually, they had some boxed lunches for us. Some people utilized that opportunity to take a break, get some food and use the bathroom.

A little while after we started, everyone got off the ride for a group photo. We were all riding on the red side in the morning. We got 50 laps in before they asked us to move to the Blue side. They wanted us on that side once the park was open. They had us exit and go around to get to the Blue side. I used this opportunity to very quickly take a bathroom break. I made it back an on with about a minute to spare. The only other time we had to get off was shortly after the public started riding. The Blue train had a limiter problem. We were down for 20 or 30 minutes. I took that opportunity to grab one of the boxed lunches. Unfortunately for the train behind us, they sat in the break run through the entire down time and didn't really get a break.

Throughout the day we got several funny looks from guests. Many people asked us what we were doing. Many people wanted to know why they couldn't ride on the Blue side. So, I think the knowledge of "Give Kids the World" was significantly spread throughout the day. Many people cheered us on as the Excellent Gemini crew posted updates on our progress fairly regularly. With all of us being on blue and the GP all being on red, I think I would be accurate in saying that this was probably one of the most interactive days in a long time for Gemini. We had almost everyone slapping hands on every run. Lots of Taunting back and forth. It was a blast.

During one of the runs, the crew posted a challenge to see which made the trains run faster, rowing or the head fins. It was the GP's responsibility to Row while it was our job to do the head fins. Our entire train kept their fins up for the entire ride, save for a few hand slapping opportunities. The GP only had a few people rowing. Regardless, we were on blue with ZERO TRIMS ALL DAY. So suffice it to say, we won about 95% of the time or better. The crew had been releasing our breaks anywhere from 3 to 6 seconds later than the GP to try and time the turn arounds better and give the GP a shot at winning.

At the end of the day we all got together on one train with all the people from GKTW and had one final run. We took another group photo and headed off the ride. They gave us all a certificate, a bag and a pin. I might be forgetting something. That was pretty much it. The GKTW people were very thankful to CoasterBuzz and Cedar Point. GKTW expressed a great interest in expanding this next year to other Cedar Fair properties. I'm sure other people will have more to add. But, I'm tired and I really should be trying to catch up at work right now.

To quote the Gemini crew, "Red only wins when Chuck Norris crys. And, Chuck Norris never crys."